Sony to Lose at Least $171 Million over PlayStation Network Hack

The Sony PlayStation Network breach is likely to cost the company well over $100 million. In reality, however, the hack could cost Sony even more, as this new estimate doesn’t take into account lawsuits that have or will be filed by users of the hacked networks.

Sony’s servers were hacked sometime between April 17 and 19, impacting three networks – the PlayStation Network, Qtriocity and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) services. Sony discovered the hack of the PlayStation Network and Qtriocity services on April 19, but didnâ€™t make a public announcement until April 26. Sony announced earlier this month that the SOE service had also been breached.

As a result of the hack, the personal information of 100 million people was compromised. Roughly 12 million account holders worldwide had credit card information on file with the networks.

The PlayStation Network was down for 23 days because of the breach. The network is partially restored, with service is limited to online gaming, chat and music streaming. Sony has promised to have the full network restored by the end of this month.

According to media reports, Sony said yesterday that the PlayStation Network hack will cost it around $171 million. That figures in costs of and identity theft program and “Welcome Back” package Sony has offered to customers impacted by the breach, according to a report from PC Magazine.

“These amounts are our reasonable assumption based on the information currently available to Sony,” Sony chief financial officer Masaru Kato said in prepared remarks, according to PC Magazine. “So far, we have not received any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack. Those are key variables, and if that changes, the costs could change.”

Kato also pointed out that the estimate did not include the potential costs of lawsuits and regulatory investigations that are only in preliminary stages.

As we’ve reported previously, Sony already faces at least two class action lawsuits over the security breach, one in the U.S. and one in Canada. Among other things, both lawsuits seek to compel Sony to pay for credit monitoring for affected customers.